Circling Guide

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February 2023 Newsletter & Events

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This edition of the Circling Guide newsletter is a bit shorter than usual — it is winter after all (I mean in the Northern hemisphere, no disrespect to our upside-down friends). Even so, there is some great action in the community.

See below, as well, for “an offer you can’t refuse” to readers and reviewers of Relational Power

What’s happening in the community?

  • The Connection Institute is launching a new Coaching Certification Program which will run March 15-Sept 15. The hours will count towards ICF accreditation, if that is your desire. This is somewhat historic, as the training will be heavily experiential and use techniques from authentic relating and IFS (Internal Family System) to teach the core coaching competencies. This is not just for aspiring coaches, by the way, but for facilitators and relational leaders of any stripe. Very exciting, Peter Will Benjamin and Megan Taylor Morrison!
  • The Authentic Relating
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Relational Power on audio; Request for feedback

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The latest Relational Power v1.21 now comes with a free audiobook! This was quite a journey, by the way. Read about that on the release notes.

Sales and downloads of Relational Power have been fairly brisk, but still no (or very little) feedback or Amazon reviews (Boo-hoo). PLEASE read (or now listen) to at least the introduction chapter, its just a half-hour. And then (if you like), leave an Amazon review.

I will repeat here my previous offer: if you listen to at least the introduction and leave an Amazon review, I will call your mother (or your boss) to tell them how great you are and that they should get off your case.

An Authentic Relating Parable:

“Two monks, an old one and a younger one, had lived together for many years in a cave. In all that time, they had never had a …

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Relational Power v1.21 Release Notes

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Relational Power v1.21 was released today to all channels (Amazon, Gumroad, Web and Audiobook/Podcast). The notice was sent to this Circling Guide Newsletter with 1200 subscribers.

This release is a minor release in terms of the content, but a major release in terms of the audiobook. The previous audiobook version was okay in terms of the voice, but buggy in terms of the pauses.

A story here, in case you are interested

I spent close to a week researching the various text-to-speech services. The problem was finding one which had a human-like voice, wasn’t too pricey, could be programmed for pauses, and could take an SSML document as input containing the pauses.

You would think that would be a straightforward requirement, right? Well apparently not. It needed SSML input because I needed an automated process to produce an audiobook for each new release. Meaning the …

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Relational Power on audio; Masterful Lover with Keith; Relational Leadership with Jason; and more

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This is our mid-month issue of the newsletter. Lots going on — yay team!

The Texas AR Convergence Feb. 24-26 is now registering — and it’s a very sweet deal. Details below

An important new release of Relational Power, including audiobook! Details below.

Masterful Lover with Keith McGuiness: An introduction to Sexual Yoga for men

Keith McGuiness (who is also a good friend) has an unusual background. He’s not merely senior instructor at ART International, he also has at least 8 years experience as a teacher in the tantric lineages of Hridaya and Agama Yoga. I can’t think of a better person to teach an advanced course on relationships and sexual yoga for men.

This 8-week course starts on Jan. 19 (soon!) and is filling fast. If you are at all interested, book a call with Keith to see if you are a good candidate for what is …

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Relational Power v1.20 Release Notes & Crowd-Sourcing Updates

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Relational Power v1.20 is being released today (1/11/2023) to all formats and announced to the community in this Circling Guide newsletter.  It’s also been released to audiobook on Apple podcasts (and hence listenable/downloadable to on any smart phone, I like Podcast Addict).

This is an important milestone for the project, the most important inflection point in the project since the first draft v1.00 was released in early December. The audio release was done using text-to-speech technology, and it’s really surprisingly good (not yet perfect). This fact alone ought to triple the book’s reach.

Equally importantly, however, I kept get on getting feedback that the introduction was awful (ouch). I finally “woke-up” and was able to re-write the introduction in a way which finally, I believe, works. Thus, v1.20 is the first commercially-viable (or professional) version of Relational Power. Woo-hoo!

At this point I am just standing back, …

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January 2023 Newsletter & Events; Ryel’s new book

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Happy New Year y’all! May your practice bring you deep connections and great joy in this new year.

In this edition of the Newsletter, I review Ryel Kestano’s new book, Authentic Relating: A Guide to Rich, Meaningful, Nourishing Relationships. I am also adding a new section called “People I like”. 

Newsflashes

  • Save the date for the Authentic Relating Convergence — Feb. 24-26, Bastrop State Park (Austin TX) Previously the “All Texas Retreat”. Early bird price $350, I was hoping for less and trying to negotiate for me and y’all with Jonathan Van Matre, let me work on it. I really want to be there.
  • Jordan Allen is recommending the Netflix film Stutz, a therapy film. I LOVE therapy films. If you are with your family for the holidays and need a break from them, this is a good way to shut them up for a few
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